Review: Marsh’s Library at St. Patrick’s Close, Dublin 8
Rating: 8/10
Tony and Don paid a visit to Marsh’s library following a TV documentary which Tony had watched. Their site invites us to step back into the 18th century to see an early-Enlightenment institution, barely changed in 300 years.
We learned that it was founded in 1707 and comprises essentially books from four private collections, the last arriving around 1770. It was the first public library in Ireland and it required an Act of Parliament to found it.
We visited their exhibition called: Hunting Stolen Books which related the loss of books back in the 18th century and their occasional recovery even in recent years. It appears that book-lifters had a particular penchant for books on antiquity. To stem the tide of losses, the library eventually installed three reading-cages (still there) where readers were locked up while they consulted books.
Some more recent history comes in the form of a collection of machine-gun-riddled books in the original reading room, the victims of a British soldier several streets away who shot wildly during the Easter Rebellion.
Famous ‘clients’ of Marsh’s included Dean Swift, James Joyce and Bram Stoker.
A nice visit for anybody who gets a warm, fuzzy feeling near book history.
Asynchronists 